Svenska Spel buys up responsible online gambling tool

Swedish state gambling monopoly Svenska Spel and ICU Intelligence have signed a contract enabling Svenska Spel to purchase all shares and assets in Playscan AB, a subsidiary of ICU Intelligence.

"The acquisition of Playscan AB collates expertise and technology for Playscan and gives us better opportunities to further develop Playscan's functionality and application in new areas of the gaming market," said Meta Persdotter, CEO, Svenska Spel. "It also gives us greater capacity to continue the development of our gaming responsibility and our community commission at large. This deal is important for Svenska Spel and it is extremely pleasing that it's in the bag".

Playscan AB becomes a subsidiary of the Svenska Spel group following the agreement, and it will be built up as an operational company with both internal and external customers.

Svenska Spel will appoint directors and managers for the company and formulate owner directives and management regulations. A company spokesman said that the close collaboration with the Swedish Gaming Institute, which mainly develops the cognitive model as well as the communication with the players of Playscan, will continue and be intensified.

Ann-Sofie Olsson, previously Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility & Public Affairs for the company, has now been appointed as the new acting CEO of Play Scan AB with the role as acting Information Director at Svenska Spel.

Playscan is the only predictive gaming responsibility tool on the gaming market, i.e. it can alert the player of potentially adverse changes in their play before the player develops problematic behaviour, a company spokesman claimed. The software uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data analysis, a method that will be used more and more in the future CRM system.

Playscan's AI core analyses and finds patterns in large amounts of gambling-related transactional data. By running data against behavioural models for known problematic gambling behaviour, it doesn't just identify current gaming problems but also forecasts the risk of future problematic behaviour, thus preventing it.

"Playscan is the basis for ongoing communication with the players about their gambling habits. The traditional tools available which allow players to test and analyse their gambling behaviour only give a snapshot of risky behaviour. With Playscan players can monitor their gambling behaviour and implement measures if the gaming habits change", says Persdotter.

If problematic behaviour is identified, Playscan offers recommendations and tools (including a gambling budget and breaks from gambling) that will help players to change their behaviour and continue to play safely. Use of the software is voluntary, but it has been implemented by more than 41 000 players on the Svenska Spel gambling website.

Svenska Spel licences Playscan to other gaming operators as a responsible gambling add-on. Currently, the French gambling monopoly La Française des Jeux offers Playscan to their customers, along with the Swedish "Miljonlotteriet" lottery.

The software was developed cooperatively by Svenska Spel, ICU and the Swedish Gaming Institute in 2008 and is based on some 25 years of research material.